Is it too late for small cars in North America?
Maybe.
The use of small cars in North America is a topic close to my heart. If you’ve read any of my other articles, you’ll know that I think hot hatches are the best, most fun, most economical and most practical daily drivers.
Now that I live in Canada, though, the smallest thing I see is a Yaris. And while that’s a small car, it’s a mid-sized hatchback, so far as I’m concerned.
The thing is, the lack of small cars… well, it makes sense. I might not agree, but I understand and can see where it comes from.
This article delves into North America’s lack of small cars and whether that might ever change.
Are small cars advantageous to North America?
At the moment, absolutely not. Hardly anyone’s interested.
Fair enough. In the same way, I’m not used to all the big cars.
There’s a place for everything.
But if North America was more open to small cars, it could bring several benefits:
- More economical journeys
- Less congestion
- Less pollution (thanks to smaller engines)
- More fun (arguably… in my opinion…)
I don’t know how many trips involve passengers and how many are just the driver, alone. However, the lack of use of carpool lanes here in Canada would suggest that most trips are solo.
That makes minimizing fuel usage and carbon emissions even more important. And it’s these sorts of things that small cars like hatchbacks can help with.
Several well-established barriers are holding small cars back, though. Although I don’t expect much to change, here are the ones that spring to mind.
Every other car on the road is… big
The thing is, when every other car on the road is a massive truck or SUV, it takes guts to be the first one to break away. Partly for fashionable reasons (touched on below), of course, but mainly from a safety point of view. Because the reality is, anyone driving a small hatchback will come off much worse in a collision with a larger, heavier vehicle.
That alone is enough to put anyone who isn’t confident at driving off of small cars.
It’s also the size of the roads. If you’ve lived on this continent all your life, you might not appreciate the vast width of lanes, especially in the cities. In Europe, roads are quite literally half the size and sometimes even smaller than that. For example, entire sections of the UK are covered in single-track roads. In other words, if someone’s coming the other way, one of you has to reverse until there’s a suitable passing point. And there is quite literally one motorway (highway) connecting England and Scotland. The same is true for England and Wales.
(For reference, there are other roads, too, but they aren’t as major.)
Out there, big cars have no place — at all, really, unless you spend all your days cruising up and down the motorways. They simply don’t fit on our country roads or car park spaces, and they aren’t manoeuvrable enough for our roundabouts.
But here, everything’s bigger. Most of the infrastructure was constructed when cars — and their needs — were already around. Driving a small car on a wide road feels that much smaller and more vulnerable.
Driving culture
Where I’m from, everyone starts off in a tiny little hatchback (and almost always a manual). The ‘cool’ cars on the road are the hot hatches — these days, that’s Golf GTIs, Corsa VXRs (have to include a Corsa on there), Seat Ibizas, Audi A3s, Fiesta STs, and so on. In other words, small cars — with a few exceptions — are desirable.
That culture doesn’t exist here (and there’s nothing wrong with that). In North America, everyone wants big and bulky cars or trucks with massive, naturally aspirated V8s.
And that’s absolutely fine. I love a good muscle car. They’re great fun to drive, and most hatchbacks could never even dream about the raw power that comes when you put your foot down in a Mustang or a high-spec F-150. However, no matter what car you drive and what fuels it, the love of big cars is an obvious barrier to smaller, more economical vehicles.
Automatic transmissions/gearboxes
Another significant difference between the continents is the driving test. In the UK, if you learn to drive in a car with an automatic transmission, you can only drive automatics. No manuals (also known as ‘stick shifts’ or ‘standards’) for you. If you want to drive them, you need to learn in one.
(Technically, it’s whatever you pass your test in rather than what you learn in. But I imagine those to be one and the same.)
That means almost everyone learns to drive a manual car, even if they switch to an automatic shortly after passing.
And automatic gearboxes in small cars? Well, they aren’t great. Modern examples might be a little smoother, but the shudderingly awful time between gear changes on the automatic versions of my car makes me cringe like nothing else.
There simply isn’t space for a big automatic gearbox in a small car, and automatic gearboxes must be relatively big to be smooth. In a continent where most people are unfamiliar with a clutch pedal, that’s another barrier.
Distance driving
Before moving out here, I would have never dreamt of driving more than three hours. Anywhere. Not without staying for a few days to make it worthwhile. But now, I’m less surprised when someone says they’re driving 14 hours for a weekend away in a southern state or heading three hours north to meet someone for dinner. It still widens my eyes, but I’m getting used to it.
And when driving these distances is ‘normal’, I can understand that small cars feel less comfortable and less relaxed. Even though the driving position should be pretty much the same in any vehicle, there’s a psychological component, and I understand that being off-putting. I suppose I look for a somewhat aggressive car (without running away from me), keeping me on my toes. That’s great for fun, short journeys but less suitable for a long trip where comfort and smoothness — GT-style cars — are more appropriate.
Road noise might also be a factor, although, in a modern hatchback, that should also be minimal. My Corsa makes an awful racket once you’re going over 60 mph (97 kph) because even in its top gear (fifth), the engine turns at 4,000 rpm. But it’s a 2005 model, and most newer cars I’ve been in are much less noisy.
Straight, straight roads
When people came to the New World and the original European empires divided it up and fought over it, they used grid patterns. That’s why everything. Is. So. Straight. And. Dull.
This really negates the ‘fun’ of driving a small car or a hot hatchback. They’re most alive and enthralling when you’re throwing them around corners in country lanes, perilously close to a stone wall, and squeezing between it and a massive tractor.
There’s nothing anyone can do about this. From a logistical point of view, you might argue that straight roads make a lot more sense. It’s hard to get lost, for instance. And what are we going to do? Dig up all the roads and start again? Of course not.
I don’t see a path forward here. We’d just have to live with the fact that hot hatches couldn’t possibly be quite so fun out here — well, unless you happen to live in a mountainous or valley area with fun, twisty roads.
So, what next?
I’ll face the reality here. A tiny percentage of the North American percentage will read this article. Even fewer will reach the end, and of them, most won’t care. So, this page doesn’t really make any difference.
Which I think is sad. Oh well.
But if you’ve reached the end of this page and feel inclined to be an early adopter, go for it. Maybe cars will get a little smaller, one by one.
Because the potential for smaller cars is huge. As the world looks to cut down carbon emissions and pollution, with EV and alternative fuel adoption, smaller cars would make things a whole lot easier. Less weight to carry naturally means you need less energy to get there. And at the moment, every little thing counts.
